News from North Greenville University

NGU Professor Produces Winning Marching Band Drills

Tigerville, SC (February 14, 2019) North Greenville University’s Music Education
Coordinator and Associate Professor Dr. David Cudd has designed drills for 27
high school marching bands which have won the title of state champions.

When not teaching music education classes at
NGU, Cudd spends his time generating designs for marching bands using special
software called Pyware 3D.

Cudd shared that he began working with marching
band designs during his time as a college student at Furman University. Band
directors would send him the music, and Cudd would analyze the music, identify
the phrases, and then design the drills.

Cudd’s role as a marching band drill designer is
to instruct every musician where to stand, when to move, how to move, and where
to go on the football field.

When he first began designing drills for
marching bands, Cudd did not have access to a computer. Cudd shared that he
designed all the placeholders and mapped the movements by hand.

Using a lightbox to trace over musicians’
movements across the football field, Cudd would spend an entire day drawing two
or three sketches for instructions. Cudd shared he would go through reams of
paper just for one marching band drill design.

Having worked all summer of 1982, after his
freshman year of college, Cudd saved up enough money to purchase the Apple IIE.
Leaving behind the pen and paper, Cudd created drill instructions upwards of 70
pages long in as quickly as just one week.

Depending on the size of the high school, Cudd
averages between one week and one month laying out the designs. The high school
bands vary in size, ranging from 40 to 140 student musicians.

Last summer, Cudd designed drills for 15
different schools across the state. Two of which, Pickens High School (Class
3A) and Easley High School (Class 4A) won the title of state champions.

During the fall season, Cudd serves as a judge
for various high school marching band competitions across the state.

When asked what inspired him to pursue a career
in music education, Cudd recalled his high school band instructor motivated
him. Throughout his time in the public school system, Cudd has taught as a band
director, teaching chorus, biology classes, and even driver education classes.

With over 30 years of teaching experience, Cudd
shifted his attention toward higher education at NGU.

Cudd grew up just 3.5 miles from NGU’s campus, off
Highway 414. Huebert Dill, Cudd’s grandfather, graduated from North Greenville
Academy in 1917. Rebecca Dill, Cudd’s mother, graduated from North Greenville
Junior College in 1961.

“It was like coming back home when I came back
here,” said Cudd, when he returned to NGU.

Cudd has served as an adjunct professor for ten
years and has worked full time at NGU for the last four years. Cudd also
supervises music education student teachers.

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